


i just came to say hello

by clairelutra (exosolarmoon)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, In Love, Ladrien Summer, aka self-indulgent ladrien paradise h e r e i c o m e, competitive wingmanning, dumb dorks being dumb dorks, it should be, lowkey ladynoir/djwifi, more adrinette than originally planned, that part is important, the great ladrien/adrinette shipwar of 2k17, what do you mean that's not already a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-10-28 14:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10833273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: In which Nino finds out his best bro is in love with Ladybug, and jumps the Ladynoir and Adrienette ships for Ladrien summarily.Adrien is flustered, Alya takes personal offense, and Marinettefinallysees her chance tohit that.What could possibly go wrong?(abandoned/indefinite hiatus, sorry >.<)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> done scene by scene every other day on [my tumblr](http://a-miiraculer.tumblr.com/), and will be updated here whenever i have a chapter's worth of those scenes
> 
> note that i don't have the greatest track record when it comes to finishing multichaps; consider yourself warned and, well, enjoy?

“So dude,” said Nino mildly, appearing over Adrien’s shoulder as he tended to do sometimes, “were you ever planning to tell me you were in love with Ladybug, or were you just gonna leave me out in the cold over here?”

Adrien froze, heart leaping into his mouth and face going hot. “Uhh, in love with who now?”

Nino slung an arm around his shoulders. “The girl you have all over your notebook, my dude. Superheroine extraordinaire. That chick who leaps all over the city in skintight spandex. That one.”

“It’s not spandex,” said Adrien automatically, before he could stop to  think about how it’d sound, “it’s actually made out of—... Uh.” 

Nino raised his eyebrows with a knowing grin.

Adrien coughed. “Right. Her. Iiiiii... uh.”

Well, in his defense, it was kind of hard to explain how and why you loved someone without being able to say how you knew them in the first place. He’d absolutely been dying to talk to someone, _anyone_ , about how utterly amazing Ladybug was — Nino in particular — but all the things he wanted to talk about (the way she laughed, the way she smirked when the pieces of a plan fell into place for her, the way she fawned over black cats when she thought he wasn’t looking) weren’t exactly things Gabriel model Adrien Agreste had any way of knowing.

In the end, all he had to give his friend was a sheepish, slightly shamed smile.

“Sorry, dude.”

Nino regarded him for one long moment, and then dragged him down into a noogie. “Ehh, don’t worry about it, man. I get it, I totally do.”

Adrien kind of doubted that he did, but accepted his friend’s forgiveness with not a little bit of relief. “Thanks, Nino.”

“I mean,” Nino went on, voice dropping, “have you _seen_ that ass?”

Adrien groaned and elbowed his friend’s side. 

(Not too hard though, because Adrien had, in fact, seen that ass.)

“Shut up, bro,” he still said, the sides of his face even hotter than before. There was a sigh in his throat as he went on, “She’s _amazing_.”

Nino looked long and hard at him and then said, “Holy shit, bro.”

Adrien blinked. “What?”

“You’re in love.”

Adrien blinked again. “Isn’t that what you said before?”

“Well, yeah, but...” Nino shook his head and adjusted his cap. “Nah, never mind. She is pretty great, isn’t she?”

‘Pretty great’ didn’t even begin to cover it — Adrien didn’t know where to start.

“Man,” said Nino, guiding Adrien back towards their classroom, “to think my best bro’s been in love with Ladybug and I never kne—”

**_CRASH!!_ **

Both Adrien and Nino’s heads snapped towards the din.

In the center of that cacophonous crash was Marinette, staring at them with wide eyes from under a pile of equipment.

“S-s-sorry!” she squeaked, adorably red. “I, um, just. I tripped! O-over the, um...”

Adrien ducked out from under Nino’s arm to help his other friend up. “Doing okay there?”

She stared at his hand for a good three seconds before accepting it and pushing herself up, darkening all the way to bright scarlet before she had her feet under her again. “F-fine?”

A discreet check revealed no broken bones or bleeding cuts, so Adrien took her word for it. “That’s good. Remember to watch where you step.”

Marinette made a faint _meeyorp_ sort of noise, and Adrien found himself swallowing a snort. _  
_

_Cuuuute._

Looking up, he also found that Nino was watching the two of them with something that was almost a wince. 

“Heeeey, Marinette,” he greeted her cautiously. He adjusted his cap again. “...How much of that did you hear?”

Marinette didn’t verbally answer, but she did turn new and interesting shades of maroon, which Adrien supposed was an answer in itself. 

Whoooops. 

Well, it was Marinette. She was pretty trustworthy, as far as Adrien knew. She probably wouldn’t do anything bad with that information.

The bell took that opportunity to ring, jarringly loud above their heads. 

“Time to get to class?” he suggested.

There was some sort of silent communication going on between the two of them when he looked back down, but, after a moment of silence, they agreed.

* * *

Marinette kind of floated through her day after that.

_“Man, to think my best bro’s been in love with Ladybug and I never kne—”_

Adrien. In love with _Ladybug._

Ladybug.

_Marinette was Ladybug._

Adrien was _in love with her._

Or, you know, at least found her attractive enough that Nino could somehow come by that conclusion.

How? When? _Why?_

Her head was still spinning as she stumbled into her last class of the day, but not spinning so hard that she didn't notice that Alya was downright _stomping_.

The teacher walked in before she could ask her friend about it, but one rather boring chemistry lesson later, Alya was still fuming.

"Everything okay?" Marinette questioned her as they walked down the front steps together. Marinette was currently of the opinion that _everything_ would be much better than okay for the rest of eternity, but it was obvious that Alya wasn't seeing it.

Alya made a disgusted little _tch_ noise. "I can't _believe him!"_

Marinette blinked. "Believe who?"

"Nino!" said Alya, throwing her hands up in the air. "He said — and I can't believe this — he said that he didn't think Ladybug and Chat Noir should end up together!"

Marinette blinked again. "He doesn't?"

It had been a slightly hilarious, slightly uncomfortable thing to witness — Nino and Alya, thick as thieves in the whole 'Ladybug and Chat Noir belong together forever' thing — and Marinette had learned to live with her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend desperately shipping her with her dorky partner (whom she really wasn't all that interested in) as _well_ as cheerleading her in her attempts to get Adrien to notice her.

(She had to admit that it got slightly funnier when they were put in the same sentence.)

But still... Nino had jumped ship?

"No!" Alya snapped, and then sighed. "He said he's gonna support Adrien instead, and that he doesn't want to make him feel bad by supporting Ladybug getting together with someone else."

_...What._

"Like, I get it," Alya rambled on, gesticulating at thin air as she walked. "I mean, I support you, right? But she's a _superhero._ How would that even _work?"_

Marinette could think of a few ways.

"She's got enemies! He's a squishy human! There's no _way_ he could keep up with her, and why _should_ he when he's got you right here?"

"Weeeeell..." Marinette said, "I mean, he could probably keep up with Ladybug, _I_ think. He's really good at fencing, right? And basketball! And karate! And I think he could totally keep— _meep!"_

Alya, now with an vice-tight grip on Marinette's biceps and an unholy glint in her eyes, said, "That means _nothing._ I have not supported you for the past two years only to _fail_ because Adrien got starry-eyed over a superhero."

Marinette, the superhero in question, was both heart-warmed and slightly terrified.

Alya released her, and Marinette scrubbed her aching arms as her friend went on, "What we _need_ is to show Adrien how great you are. We need to get his head out of the stars and down here with the rest of us — and preeeeferably turned toward you."

"But, wait," Marinette protested, still rather caught on the thought that Adrien had _noticed_ her, "can I really compete with Ladybug? Maybe it would be better to... uh."

The unholy glint in Alya's eye had intensified into a gleam, and at this point in their friendship, Marinette was too used to it to feel the need to take a step back.

Alya seized her shoulders, much more gentle this time. "Girl, I promised you that one day he would love you, and as long as you still want that, I will not stop until he _loves you."_

Marinette found herself blinking sudden tears out of her eyes, but whatever melting, embarrassing noises of adoration were about to escape her, Alya cut them off with an annoyed _tch_ and added in an undertone, "Even if my boyfriend _has_ abandoned me."

...Marinette wondered if she had a little 'friending' of her own to do.

But first, foremost, and _most importantly_ , Adrien liked her! He really, really _liked her!_

There was no way in _hell_ Marinette was going to let this chance go to waste.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i ended up taking a 2-week hiatus for health reasons but i'm back on the ball
> 
> i hope

Okay.

Okay, okay, okay, she could _do this._

All Ladybug had to do was go in and... and...

What did she have to do again?

She jolted back from the open window before one of the people milling below could catch sight of her.

She was sitting high on the roof of the studio Adrien was modeling at this week, trying to screw up her courage to just get over herself and _dive in_ , find him, and make out with him in some forgotten closet, but that was proving easier thought than done.

He liked her, he really _liked her,_ but _oh god_...

What did she do now?

She was halfway to hyperventilating (again) when it occurred to her that really, she should just tap into Alya's endless well of boy-related wisdom and guidance — it wasn't like she didn't know her friend well enough to recreate her in her head.

 _Alya, Aaaaaalya,_ thought Ladybug as hard as she could. _What do I do?_

 _Well,_ said the Alya-voice in her head, _I mean, you should really just go down there and talk to him... if you can, of course._

Alya-voice rested a friendly not-forearm across Ladybug's shoulders and continued, _Go on girl, you can do it!_

Alya's wisdom and encouragement never failed.

Ladybug took a deep breath, and then swung herself through the open window.

* * *

—and, because she didn't check her landing place properly, dropped right into the center of an in-progress shoot.

For one awful, endless moment, the world froze. There were the bright lights reflected off the lighting crew's sheets, there was the cool industrial cement beneath her feet, there was the backdrop in front of her nose, there were two very confused models seated on the dais behind her, and there was the hollow, empty ringing scream in her ears.

And then the photographer poked his head around the tripod with a worried look. "Ladybug! Is-is there an akuma around?"

Ladybug could actually _feel_ the blood drain from her face. For one more horrible second, the world moved on without her, her feet rooted to the ground and panic tingling in the back of her throat.

She ripped herself out of it like the Hulk unrooted trees.

"An akuma!" she chirped, whipping around on her heel and feeling strain around her eyes. "Yes, of course there's an akuma. I'm... chasing it! Through here! Don't mind me."

The photographer blinked.

"I'll just... get out of your way then!" Ladybug took two large steps to the right, grinning (grimacing) nervously. "Watch out for, uh. Big pink bubbles! Very, very dangerous—" She spied her escape through an archway at the back of the room. "—anyway!! Sorry-okay-thanks-bye!"

And she bolted.

In the relative safety of the deserted hallway, she leaned against the wall and let her eyes slip shut, her pulse rattling her teeth.

She still didn't have the first clue what to _actually_ do about having a real live _chance_ , but it looked like there was no going back now.

* * *

Adrien was halfway through his lunch (and halfway through consoling Nino about the most recent argument with his girlfriend) when he heard the knock.

He blinked at his phone's clock, which told him he still had another ten minutes left before they'd want him back, and then blinked at the door. _Had something come up?_ he wondered as he set down his sandwich and padded over to the door.

Ladybug greeted him on the other side, glitter in her disheveled hair and a wild look in her eye.

"L—... Ladybug?"

"Hi," she said brightly, and then clamped her mouth shut, panic flickering across her face.

"...Hi," said Adrien, and then glanced behind her. Was there an akuma? But his news feed hadn't made a peep... "Is... something wrong?"

"Nothing," Ladybug assured him instantly, smiling wide. "Absolutely nothing could possibly be wrong. Ever. At all. ...Um."

Adrien batted away flashbacks of _Stepford Wives_. "Right. Um. Can I ask what brought you here, then?"

Because it wasn't that Adrien wasn't absolutely thrilled to see her, but it _really looked like there was something wrong._

Ladybug opened her mouth, shut it, opened it, and shut it again, about five microexpressions flickering across her face with each movement. "I. Um."

"...Is there an akuma?" Adrien suggested eventually, because what other reason would a superhero have to turn up at a model's dressing room?

(...Well, there _were_ other reasons, but Adrien was discounting the ones that sounded like porno premises.)

"Um," said Ladybug, and it occurred to Adrien that she was... rather flushed, actually. "Yes. I mean no. I mean _maybe._ I mean— _meep!"_

Her bangs tickled the back of Adrien's hand as he pushed them aside to take her temperature, her forehead warm under his palm.

Warm, but not overwarm — definitely not burning the way the back of his neck felt when he got a fever.

Adrien realized that her eyes were very blue and very wide, and then that Adrien Agreste had reached over and checked the forehead of Real Live Parisian Superhero _Ladybug_ , and wrenched his hand back like she'd caught fire.

"No fever!" he chuckled nervously, and scrubbed the back of his head with a tingling palm. "So... akuma?"

Ladybug, even redder than before, gave a tiny little headshake. "N-no, no akuma."

Adrien blinked.

Ladybug blinked back.

"...Then why...?"

Another slow blink, and she breathed, "T-to see you?"

Adrien's stomach did one single very neat flip, 10/10 across the judging panel, a true gem of gastronomical acrobatics.

"You came here to... see _me?"_

Was there actually an akuma? Had she gotten hit by a spell of some sort? What—

Ladybug blinked once more, and then seemed to snap out of it — rather violently.

"I mean!!" She leaped back, hands held high and eyes astonishingly blue. "I wanted to ask you. A-a-about colors! What your favorite color is!! Or what your favorite animal is!!" She finger-gunned him, an awkward grimace scrunching up her cheeks. "And. And whether you, um. Dinner. And closets."

Adrien stared at the fingers pointed at his face and wondered if he hadn't checked her temperature thoroughly enough.

"...Closets?"

Fascinatingly, her face drained of all color, and then regained it at astonishing speeds. _"Um—"_

An alarm blared through the halls, a low, blaring pitch that said _akuma_ , not _fire_.

One of his coworkers burst out of her own dressing room a little further down the hall, yelling, "Ladybug! Did you find the akuma?" over the din.

"What akuma?" Adrien tried to ask, but whatever came out of his mouth was swallowed by the noise.

Apparently the sirens did their job, though, because Ladybug looked downright alarmed.

"Um," her mouth formed, and then she cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders. "I did not! Was there—"

Something crashed, and three heads turned towards the source as one.

Crash meant akuma or emergency, and akuma or emergency meant that Ladybug and Chat Noir were needed on the scene ASAP. Adrien was about to turn and excuse himself from the gathering when Ladybug clapped his shoulders, speaking just loud enough to be heard.

"Stay safe!"

And then she pulled away, disappearing down the hall and leaving the two models in her wake.

Well. That worked for Adrien.

He bid a hasty goodbye to Lily (the other woman), and ducked back into his dressing room, shelving Ladybug's odd behavior for later.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pictured: me, picking up my outline and shaking it vigorously to figure out how to split it into chapters
> 
> i wasn't sure if i should merge this one with the next two scenes that are coming up, but... in the end i think not? idk if you come to this later on lemme know what you think ;;
> 
> (there are probably 19 chapters total, btw, but i don't wanna jinx it *knocks on wood*)

"Okay, but _really,"_ Alya was mumbling, stooped over her phone, when Marinette walked back to their table at today's lunch stop. "If there wasn't an akuma, then what was she _doing_ there?"

Adrien, stooped over his own phone, looked just as baffled. "I... I don't know."

"Because," Alya continued, "There wasn't an akuma before, or even a patrol. And her patrols don't even run that way — those are Chat's routes!"

"Right?" said Adrien, his brow knitted. "I saw her there and she seemed..."

He trailed off, frowning harder, and Marinette wondered if she really wanted to sit down at their table after all.

Alya stiffened in the corner of Marinette's eye. "...You saw her?"

Nino caught Marinette's gaze with a kind, wry smile and nodded her over as Adrien said, "Uh... yeah. She seemed... kind of... confused?"

Marinette hesitantly took the seat next to Adrien, her cheeks already burning in remembered humiliation.

Just yesterday she'd asked _Adrien Agreste_ whether he 'closets.'

_God why._

Nino nudged her foot with his foot and handed her half of his panini, and Marinette shook herself out of her embarrassed fog to smile gratefully and hand him back one of her turnovers.

Adrien and Alya were now frowning at the same screen.

"I mean, I talked to her," Adrien said, and Marinette froze, sandwich caught in her mouth. "She was..."

_Please god do not let him say what she was, **please—**_

She'd asked him whether he _'closets.'_

_That didn't even make sense._

Marinette really, really, _really_ did not need to hear that she'd blown her chance with Adrien because she was too much of a mess, she really didn't.

"I wonder if she was sick," was what Adrien said in the end, and Marinette almost felt like crying.

"Ladybug? _Sick?"_ Alya said, like it was a completely foreign concept, and then faltered. "I mean, I guess she must, unless she has a healing factor or something, but why do you think she was _sick?"_

Adrien waved his fork in a vague motion. "She seemed kind of... out of it? And she was really red. It was _weird."_

Nino snorted into his turnover, little flakes of butter pastry dusting his shirt, Alya went stock still, and Marinette...

Pulling the turnover out of his mouth, Nino grinned a snickering sort of grin and said, "Maybe she likes you, dude."

Marinette just wanted to sink through the floor.

"Ridiculous," said Alya on the same breath that Adrien snorted and said, "As if."

The two blinked at each other, and then Alya pulled herself together.

"She doesn't even know him," she pointed out, back stiff. "Why would she like him?"

Adrien looked away and stuffed another bite of spinach-stuffed crepe in his mouth, and Marinette could feel her face heating again.

Nino tilted his chin rather pointedly across the street at one of the many Gabriel billboard ads, and Alya rolled her eyes.

"So what, a pretty face wouldn't be enough to derail _Ladybug."_

She looked like she was about to say more, and then she looked at her tablemates (a bright red Marinette who still had a sandwich in her mouth, a downcast Adrien, and Nino, who looked _almost_ relaxed except for the sharp glint in his eye) and seemed to reconsider.

She sighed and slumped back into her seat. "Sorry, never mind."

"I mean, you're not wrong," Adrien sighed himself, and straightened. "We really haven't... talked enough for that to happen, so..."

Alya winced a little bit, but didn't take it back. Cupping her chin in her hand, she stared at the Monoprix across the corner.

"Say," she said suddenly. "Do you think they have Ramune there?"

They looked with her.

"Probably no—" Nino started, but Alya cut him off.

"Hey, Marinette, think you could go look?" she said, flicking Marinette a deliberately innocent look. "Get some for all of us — I'll pay you back."

Marinette finally removed the panini from her mouth and said, "Oh! Um, sure? I-I don't think they have it, though."

That went ignored too.

Alya turned her attention to Adrien, smiling brightly as she said, "You'll go with her, right?"

"But the Ladyblog—"

Alya clapped a hand to her cheek, eyes wide and a moue on her lips. "You'd really make Marinette carry all four bottles by herself?"

Adrien was half out of his seat before he seemed to realize what he was doing. He shot Alya a suspicious glare, which was met with a grin.

He sighed, and pushed himself up the rest of the way, smiling wryly down at Marinette and stretching once he was standing. "'Course not."

Marinette's face did something strange, in which it seemed to twist and heat furiously at the same time, and she _really_ didn't want to know what she looked like.

It seemed to amuse Adrien a little bit, but he didn't say anything as he offered her a hand up, except, "Ready to go?"

As she accepted it, Marinette _didn't_ say, _with you? anywhere_ , so that was already a victory.

"Y-yep!"

"We'll... be back," he told the other two, faltering slightly, and Marinette looked back, curious.

Alya was beaming bright, and Nino was glaring at the side of her face, looking distinctly unimpressed with the proceedings.

Well.

 _Marinette_ was impressed with the proceedings, thanks.

She did feel a bit guilty about leaving Nino and Alya to duke it out between themselves, but not guilty enough to stop her from raising a hand in farewell and following Adrien to the crosswalk.

Adrien smiled at her again as they stood waiting for the light (two smiles from Adrien!! In one day!!) and said, "...Think they'll be okay?"

Marinette glanced back again at their two friends, and found them looking at each other like two hungry wolves about to fight over a piece of meat.

She winced.

"Mmmmaybe we should hurry."

Adrien followed her gaze.

"...Good idea."

* * *

It took Marinette until they were halfway through scouring the soft drink isle to voice the question sitting on her tongue.

"...Hey, Adrien?"

A fluffy blond head withdrew from the lowest shelf, and Adrien muffled a sneeze in his shoulder before blinking up at her with shockingly green eyes. "Yeah?"

Her face felt hot as she said, "What if Ladybug went to your studio because she really _does_ like you?"

Adrien blinked at her once, twice, and then ducked back down to study the shelf, the corners of his mouth giving a little suppressed twitch. "Heh, well, you heard Alya. That'd be ridiculous, wouldn't it?"

There was something odd in his voice that Marinette couldn't figure out. She shuffled the bottles in front of her with a knit aching in her brow. "I know, but... what would you think if she did?"

Adrien stayed silent.

"...Adri—?" Marinette glanced down, and cut herself off with a little _ulp_ when she realized his pale ears were red enough to show up against his golden locks.

"That'd... that'd be..." He pulled out a bottle, cheeks flushed and a hand behind his head, and smiled half-dreamily at it, and Marinette was already halfway to melting through the floor when he said, "Well, it'd be amazing, for starters."

 **'!!!!'** said _all_ of Marinette's insides. **_'!!!!!!!!!!!!'_**

"O-oh," she managed to wheeze, and leaned against the shelf in front of her for support.

_He liked her and he wanted her to like him and he was so perfect she was going to **die—**_

And then he chuckled softly and put the bottle back on the shelf, dreamy smile taking on a wry tilt. "Impossible, though, I know."

"Um," Marinette squeaked, feeling a bit like a pet toy that someone was squeezing very tightly around the middle. She tugged at her collar with a strangled little gasp and tried again. "C-can I ask, um, why?"

Adrien looked at her like he thought she was joking. Marinette could say with great certainty that she'd never been more serious in her life.

"Uhh, because she's Ladybug?" Adrien suggested, an unsaid _duh_ lacing his tone, and then he was back to rubbing the back of his neck with that flustered, bashful little smile, and _Marinette_ was back to trying not to die of heart failure. "She's... she's _incredible."_

That 'incredible' person he was sighing about was currently trying not to fall off a stepladder, but Marinette decided to let him keep his delusions.

"I-i-incredible, huh?" she said instead, wishing deeply for a handy pillow to scream into. "Th-that's high praise!"

Adrien's smile went downright _adoring._ "It's not enough. Oh _man,_ Marinette, she's so much more than that."

He thought that she was more than _incredible._

Marinette put a hand out to steady herself against the sudden onslaught of dizziness, and tried to say, "Oh," but just ended up wheezing instead.

Her head was empty, her pulse was hammering in her chest and throat and extremities, and _Adrien thought she was incredible._

He thought. That she. Was _incredible._

He thought that she was _more_ than that.

"I mean, _everyone_ knows she's brave," Adrien rambled on, stars in his eyes and apparently unaware of his friend's impending death, "but she's... she's _good_. Like, I thought that people that _good_ only existed in stories, you know? And she's silly and beautiful and she's so _stubborn_ and..."

At which point he rubbed the back of his neck and bit the corner of his mouth, cheeks _glowing,_ and you could probably fry an egg on Marinette's face. Use her to bake your croissants. Touch her to remove hypothermia from affected limbs.

He glanced in her direction, not really seeing her as he said, "It would be kind of silly for someone like that to notice me, wouldn't it?"

 _No,_ said everything in Marinette.

"I," she started weakly, voice cracking, and then cleared her throat a couple of times. "I... I don't... think so."

He blinked at her, peridot glinting in the sunlight, surprised into focus, and Marinette found herself continuing, the faint hope in his eyes too much for her to bear.

"I mean, _you're_ amazing," she said, barely noticing that her voice was half gone, that she couldn't quite feel her face through all the flush. "I think it would be k-kind of silly of her to _not_ notice you, you know?"

Another blink, and then Adrien was smiling at her, soft and slow and bright as the dawning sun.

"Thanks, Marinette."

_Oh god._

Marinette leaned against the shelves and stuck her head inside the nearest one, knowing that if she looked at him one second longer she really _would_ faint on the spot.

"An—... anytime."

The conversation mercifully lapsed back into silence, the dull shuffle and clunk of plastic against glass only slightly less dangerous than the rambles of an awestruck teenage boy.

_I thought people that **good** only existed in stories, you know?_

He... he thought she was...

Oh, oh, oh god.

And he still said it, even after she'd completely _blown_ trying to ask him out.

Marinette _desperately_ needed to sit down.

* * *

In the end, they couldn't find Ramune.

They took back a variety of snacks as apology, and found that their friends had struck what seemed to be an uneasy truce by the time they got there, and the rest of the day was spent in semi-peace.

 _'Semi_ -peace' because Alya took one look at Marinette's beetroot-red face and winked broadly.

Nino was unimpressed, Adrien was confused, and Marinette just wanted to sink into the ground.

The resulting bickering fell on deaf ears, though.

_And she's silly and beautiful and she's so **stubborn** and..._

And Marinette was _not_ going to blow this chance.

The boy was _hers._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posted early because i'm an impatient (chatty) fucker who's either metaphorically or _literally_ signed NDAs on all my major projects (thanks, chris) and is now dying slowly
> 
> save me ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿  
>  ~~and never ever EVER make me a high-ranking official of ANYTHING please for the love of god~~

Marinette's kind encouragement was still on Chat's mind when he went to meet Ladybug for patrol that night, her soft, _I think it would be kind of silly of her to **not** notice you,_ echoing in his ears when Ladybug touched down next to him.

He was _dying_ to ask.

He couldn't, because Chat Noir had no way of knowing that Ladybug had been on the site of the most recent akuma attack long before the attack itself, and he _certainly_ had no way of knowing that she'd detoured to knock on Adrien Agreste's dressing room door, but it was _eating him alive._

What had Ladybug been _doing_ there?

His partner had a bounce in her step and a glint in her eye, no trace of the awkward lost soul who'd been at his door to be seen.

"Ready to go?" she asked, a little hook of a grin sinking its barb into the underside of his heart and _tugging._

( _What if Ladybug went to your studio because she really **does** like you?_ )

He kicked the thought under the rug and grinned back. "Of course, my—"

"Hey! Ladybug! Got time for an interview?"

He and Ladybug jumped and turned to the new voice as one.

_What was Alya doing here?_

"What?" Ladybug said, sounding about as surprised as Chat felt.

Alya was panting, doubling over as she reached them and bracing her weight on her knees, phone clutched in her hand.

"Interview?" she repeated in a wheeze. "I know it's not our normal time, but I just got a _really_ breaking story — please?"

Her head popped up, a bright, hopeful grin on her face that shot a prickle of warning down Chat's spine.

"Uhh," said Ladybug, glancing at Chat as he glanced at her.

All he had to offer her was a helpless little shrug.

"Sssure?" she said, and Alya lit up in a way that made Chat wonder if this was _really_ such a good idea.

* * *

Despite his misgivings, the interview was a fairly normal one. Alya asked for the details of the akuma, what they'd thought of it, why it was so upset, when they got the call, _et cetera._

It wasn't until the last quarter that Alya asked, "So, Ladybug, I hear you were on the site _way_ before the akuma. Care to share why?"

Beside Chat, Ladybug stiffened.

"Ah... hehe! Why do you ask?"

Alya's eyes sharpened, intent in a way that made Chat think of cats wiggling their butts in preparation for a pounce.

"Because a good friend of mine mentioned he saw you there," she said, pen poised over her notepad. "You might know him? Adrien Agreste."

Ladybug twitched.

"Aheheh..." she laughed nervously, and Chat found himself a great deal more invested than he just had been. "Well, you know..."

Chat _didn't_ know, but he _really wanted to._

"Because," said Alya, a hard, oddly protective glint entering her eye, "it looked like there _wasn't_ an akuma beforehand, and your public really wants to know what you were doing at Adrien Agreste's door, if you didn't have any _real_ business being there."

"Um," said Ladybug, which was a pretty appropriate response, Chat thought. Alya kind of sounded like she'd be waving a fire poker in Ladybug's face if she had one.

"Is it really that important?" he jumped in, dying to know but not in the form of Alya grilling her hero for tabloid fodder.

Alya shot him a quelling look.

Chat quelled.

"Well?" Alya pressed, tapping an impatient, foreboding staccato on the notepad with the tip of her pen.

"Uhhh..." said Ladybug, leaning back slightly.

"I mean," Alya went on, "it couldn't have been for _Adrien._ You barely know him."

"Eeer..." Ladybug tittered, hands fidgeting in the corner of Chat's eye. "...Maybe?"

Alya's pen froze a millimeter above the notepad.

"What?" she and Chat said as one.

Ladybug, now that Chat was looking at her, was almost as flushed as she'd been yesterday, arms folded and nose turned up. "I-I mean, superheroes can have crushes too, you know?"

_What._

_"How?"_ Alya demanded, setting down her pen with a sharp snap. "Have you even _talked_ to him?"

"A bit!" Ladybug snapped back, cheeks bright red. "He's... he's really nice. And cute. And sweet."

Said _Ladybug_ about _Adrien Agreste._

Said _Ladybug_ about _Chat's alter ego._

Chat sank back into his seat, face absolutely _burning_ as Alya leaned forward, looking downright _offended._

"You barely know him!"

Ladybug hesitated, and then, blushing rosily, in the most heart-stopping little mumble, she said, "...I'd _like_ to know him."

Chat was sort of aware that Alya had blanched, but he was a little too busy biting down on his screaming pulse too pay it much heed.

( _What if Ladybug went to your studio because she really **does** like you?_ )

"Well," said Alya, stiff and a little upset, "it's not going to work, because you're a superhero and he has a _life._ Don't put it in danger."

Ladybug slumped like she thought Alya had a point, but Chat could honestly say that if Ladybug _wanted_ to arrive on Adrien Agreste's doorstep and smash his boring life to bits, he'd be the _last_ person to complain.

"Thanks for the interview," Alya said shortly, packing up her materials and scowling at her notes. "I'm not sure I said it before, but Adrien doesn't know you and doesn't need you messing things up for him—"

Lies. That was _exactly_ what Adrien needed.

"—so kindly _back off,"_ she continued, apparently not having psychic powers. She stood. "Have a nice night."

With that, she brushed past them, and Chat listened to her footsteps descend the stairs of the abandoned lobby.

Ladybug remained silent.

Chat waited for the _swishclunk_ of the door, and then said, "...So. Uh."

Ladybug's chin raised, the look on her face drained but dutiful.

"...Patrol?" Chat suggested cautiously.

Still a little too quiet for comfort, Ladybug nodded.

* * *

Patrol that night was a quiet one.

The worst part of all that, Ladybug thought as she scanned the city below for trouble, was that Alya had a point. Adrien _didn't_ need Ladybug swooping in and ruining his life, even if he, for all appearances, seemed to _really like her._

She finally, finally, _finally_ had her chance, and she'd be the first in line to _take_ it, except...

Except.

Now she was faced with the moral dilemma of whether she _should_ or not.

"So," said Chat, interrupting her stewing. "...Adrien?"

Ladybug flinched minutely, unaccountably guilty — except that she knew exactly where the guilt came from, she just didn't want to think too much about it. "...Adrien."

Chat let out a funny little half-breath, fidgeting in place. "Right."

Ladybug resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands. _This,_ she thought despairingly, _was why you should always **think** before you go hit on your crush as your alter-ego._

(She'd never wanted to hurt Chat, and she'd always had a sneaking suspicion that he was a little more genuine in his flirtations than he wanted to let on. For him to find out about Adrien like _that..._

 _This_ was what she got for _not thinking._ )

"Can I, um..." Chat started, and then cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his head and looking away. "Can I ask why?"

"'Why'?" she echoed, glancing over at him in surprise. "Why what?"

Chat looked embarrassed. "Why Adrien."

Ahh...

Ladybug cleared her throat, embarrassed herself.

And, well, it was _embarrassing_ , but she figured that if she owed anyone an explanation, it was probably Chat.

She sighed. "You can't tell _anyone_ this, okay?"

Chat straightened and nodded sharply, and Ladybug bit down a little giggle at the seriousness of the gesture, touched.

"We, uh..." She squirmed in place, feeling exposed. "We go to school together, actually."

Chat froze, eyes widening almost comically.

"Shut up," Ladybug groaned preemptively, "it's not _that_ weird." Then she sighed. "...Just..."

Chat slowly stopped gaping at her.

Awkward and wondering if she really should be saying it at all, she continued, "You know those people who you see around sometimes, and every single time you do, you just think, _please pin me against a wall?"_

Chat went back to gaping, croaking, "K-kind of?" in response to her fairly legitimate question.

"He's _nice,"_ she repeated, giving in and burying her face in her hands. "And he's _cute_. And his _voice_..."

She clamped her mouth shut in horror, realizing just in time that she was about to tell _Chat_ that Adrien's voice made her want to _take her clothes off._

Nope, nope, nope, not doing that to Chat tonight, no way, no how.

"Um!" she squeaked, ripping her hands away from her face and avoiding her partner's now very _intent_ gaze. "Anyway! I-I wouldn't exactly call us _friends_ , but it's not like I've never talked to him before or anything. It's not _that_ weird that I like him."

A funny silence from Chat, then he pointed out the obvious: "Then... why not ask him out as a civilian?"

Ladybug sighed and slumped. "I've _tried_. I'm a _mess."_

Chat swallowed a stunned, muffled snort.

"It's true," Ladybug insisted. "Do you know how hard it is to say, _hey hot stuff, wanna catch a movie?_ to someone when all you can think about is how bad you want to kiss them?"

A crackling, choking noise emitted from his throat, which he then cleared and used to say weakly, "No, I don't normally... have that problem."

"Lucky," Ladybug grumbled.

"And... doing it as Ladybug is easier?" Chat suggested.

"Ha!" she barked humorlessly, thinking of her disastrous first attempt. "I... I _thought_ it would be."

"Ah," said Chat, and offered her a cautious shoulder pat.

Ladybug appreciated the gesture.

"I just thought... I mean, I'm a nobody at school, he's never going to notice just _me_ , but I thought that... maybe if I was _Ladybug_..." She scrubbed her face. "And he likes Ladybug! So I thought it would be easier."

Chat winced and patted her shoulder again, and Ladybug couldn't help but lean into him as she said, "I did _not_ think that through."

"...Well," said Chat comfortingly, "for what it's worth, I don't think he'd mind at all."

( _Oh **man,** Marinette, she's so much more than that._ )

Ladybug's face burned at the reminder.

Somehow, _she_ didn't think he'd mind either.

"I mean, you've met Alya," Chat went on, removing his hand to set it on his hip. "She's kind of the protective type, right? She's probably just worried."

 _Yeah,_ Ladybug thought, _but not about that._

It was a fair point though, and she sighed, straightening.

"Thanks, Chat," she said, knocking her elbow against her partner's gratefully. _For understanding,_ she didn't say.

"'Course," said Chat, elbow-bumping her back, and then looked away in a slightly-too-casual fashion, scrubbing the back of his head. "...Say."

"Yeah?"

"Do you really look at him and think... _that?"_

It took Ladybug a second to figure out that he was talking about her... more common fantasies.

"It's worse than that," she confessed, now that the danger of accidentally breaking her friend's heart seemed to have passed. "Usually I just want him to..."

Chat was staring at her _wide-eyed._

She trailed off, abruptly reminded of who she was talking to. "Um."

Chat looked like he was fighting the urge to ask. Ladybug appreciated the effort.

"Anyway!" she pushed on, her blush making a fierce, fiery comeback. "I do think that and _wow_ is it getting that late?" She turned on her heel. "We should really finish up patrol!"

Chat made a strangled noise, coughed, and tried again. "R-right! Lead the way."

The night was young, the stars were bright, and Ladybug and Chat Noir finished up their joint patrol in awkward, blush-ridden silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also, because my tumblr tags are something close to my heart:
> 
> marinette: so, why do you like ladybug?  
> adrien: oh man she's just so brave and silly and funny and— *3hr rant*
> 
> chat: so about adrien........  
> ladybug: i want him to raw me  
> chat: ......what  
> ladybug: r a w m e


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ......i sense that posting a few hours early here is probably going to be a thing, not that it matters much
> 
> have at?

Adrien walked into school the next day in a daze.

If last night hadn't been some sort of _fever dream_ , then that meant that Ladybug _went to school with him_ and _had a crush on him._

Or, well.

Whatever you called it when...

_You know those people who you see around sometimes, and every single time you do, you just think, **please pin me against a wall?**_

Adrien swallowed hard, loosening his suddenly-too-tight collar and wondering if he'd ever be able to talk to his female classmates again — this was going to be _absolute torture_ until he figured out who Ladybug was.

God...

He'd _spoken_ to her and never had a clue who she was.

What kind of partner was _he?_

Sure, he'd never been _looking_ , exactly, but he'd always sort of assumed he'd just... _know_ her.

Looked like that was a bust.

He rubbed the heel of his hand over the odd ache on his chest as he made his way up the steps, head far enough in the clouds that he didn't hear Nino charging up the steps until he was being tackled.

"Bro!" Nino cried as Adrien's world went sideways, scrubbing his nails through Adrien's immaculate coif. "Bro, have I got the _best_ news for you."

"News?" Adrien grunted from behind the arm locked tight around his neck and the fingers ruthlessly destroying this morning's hard work. Ouf, dizzy...

Nino, he was sure, was beaming. "It's Ladybug, dude."

Adrien's ears pricked.

"Alya had an interview with her last night and _dude_..."

Adrien found himself smiling into the crook of Nino's arm, clean detergent in his nose and blood rushing to his face.

(She'd said that she'd like to know him.

And then she said—)

"She's not gonna post it, but they _talked_ about you, dude," said Nino, confidential and excited and scrubbing Adrien's scalp even more vigorously for a second before letting him go. "Ladybug said—"

"Ladybug said nothing," said Alya, catching up to them with a mutinous look on her face. _"Nothing."_

"Now, that's not what I heard," said Nino, halfway between reproachful and unbearably _smug_ as he walked the three of them through the courtyard. "I'm pretty sure I heard something like Ladybug wanting to get to know my bro here."

Adrien's face flushed at the reminder, heart tripping in delight.

"Your ears need to be _fixed,"_ Alya gritted out, her steps irritation-heavy, and that was about the point Adrien started to tune them out.

Ladybug actually wanted to...

And she was _here._ At _school._

And he knew, he knew, he _knew_ she didn't want him to find out who she was, but...

She was so _close._

And it wasn't like he'd actually try to confirm it or use the info to bother her, right? He wasn't going to go tracking her down or anything, he just...

Would it be so bad to just... try to narrow it down? Just a little bit?

(To figure out who his partner was, to figure out who looked at him and thought _please pin me against a wall_...

Gnk.)

Okay, _moving on._

 _I'm a **mess,**_ she'd bemoaned, which counted out about half of the people he'd spoken to over the course of his schooling, which left...

"H-hey, Adrien!"

Adrien looked up, smile already on his face as he spied Marinette. "Hey."

She stumbled up beside him and peeked around him at their two friends on his other side.

"Still at it?"

"Still at it," he confirmed with a sigh. His head was still in Nino's grasp, forgotten, but that was alright. He leaned forward a little and glanced at Alya, who still looked upset, and then asked Marinette in an undertone, "Do you know what's up with Alya?"

Because sure, Alya was protective, but this seemed a bit more personal than just 'my idol has a crush on my friend.'

(Ladybug. Had a _crush._

And it was on _him._

The heat in Adrien's face redoubled at the internal reminder.)

"Oh!" Marinette yelped, and then scrubbed the back of her head, giggling nervously. "Aheheheh... Nope! Not a clue! D-d-do _you_ have a clue?"

Adrien stared at the fingers pointed at his face and then at the awkward grin on his friend's face and was struck by a sudden wave of _déjà vu._

"Well, no," he started, vague and distant as he tried to figure out where he'd _seen_ that before, "that's why I—"

"Well," Alya's voice broke through his, "it's _not_ going anywhere — they're in _completely_ different places — and there's nothing you can do about it!"

He and Marinette both jumped.

"Oh yeah?" Nino snapped, not quite as loud as Alya but with his voice still raised. His arm tightened around Adrien's neck, and Adrien found himself scrabbling for air. _"Watch me."_

 _"Ugh,"_ said Alya, and shoved through the classroom door, looking fit to murder as she stormed into her seat. "Good luck!"

Adrien and Marinette traded worried looks, and Nino sighed as he let Adrien go.

"Sorry, dude."

"'S chill," Adrien reassured him, but still rubbed his neck with a wince. _Ow._ "...Is everything okay?"

"Huh?" said Nino, and then readjusted his cap with a sigh. "Yeah, I'm good, dude. Thanks."

Marinette looked about as convinced as Adrien felt.

Something wordless passed between his two friends then, something which ended with Marinette wincing herself and Nino offering a helpless shrug, and then Marinette scurried after Alya, shouting something about homework.

Adrien breathed into the silence.

"Okay but seriously," he repeated once Marinette was out of earshot, "is everything okay?"

Nino sighed deeper. "Yeah, I am. Alya's... no, never mind." He smiled reassuringly at Adrien's questioning look. "I get why she's upset, it's okay."

Well, _Adrien_ didn't, and he was about to ask what it was that everyone but him seemed to know when Nino changed the subject.

"So, bro," he said, with a friendly shoulder-punch to clear the air. "You down to game tomorrow night?"

Adrien perked up at the idea of Nino and basketball and video games. "Ye—... oh, wait."

Reality was a harsh mistress.

Nino sighed, understanding. "You need to model?"

"Ha, I wish," Adrien groaned, feeling a headache coming on. "Father wants me to attend a society meeting."

"'Society meeting,'" Nino mocked under his breath and bumped his knuckles sympathetically against Adrien's shoulder. "Boring adult party?"

"Boring adult party," Adrien confirmed with a tired chuckle. Guaranteed to have _even more_ middle-aged millionaires trying to set him up with their children than usual.

It would have been flattering if it wasn't so _awkward._ Extracting himself from the conversation wasn't always an option, and trying to find things to say that were non-answer-y to keep the pushier ones from setting up actual meetings was _hard_.

Adrien was the one sighing now. "It's not so bad, maybe we could game next... week...?"

Nino was staring at him like he'd had a revelation.

"What?"

Nino slung an arm around Adrien's shoulders and dragged him into the classroom, not _quite_ grinning, but something close. "Nothing, dude. We'll game next week — c'mon, we're late."

Adrien was starting to suspect he was more out of the loop than he'd first thought.

* * *

Ladybug kicked her heels against the side of the building she was sitting on and sighed.

She'd been _planning_ to find a way to find Adrien in costume again (to apologize and talk to him and maybe do some other things, too, if they got there), but...

Alya had been grumpy and short for the rest of the school day — she hadn't even smiled when Chloé ended up stepping on a rake one of the gardeners had left by the lawn, which told Marinette that whatever funk her friend was in, it was _bad_ — and had bid Marinette a distracted goodbye at the end of the day, frowning at her phone screen as she power-walked in the direction of her home.

Which had been worrying enough, but then she'd transformed for patrol only to find she had a hasty apology message from Chat: something had come up in his civilian life and he couldn't make it to their joint patrol tonight.

It happened now and again, but she'd been extra looking forward to spending time with him tonight and getting her mind off things, so it bit just that much harder.

She was hesitating at their meeting place, half-hoping that his emergency plans would get cancelled and half just resting before she tackled their route, when she heard the shout.

"Hey! Hey, Ladybug!"

...Was that Nino?

Ladybug leaned over the edge of the building in surprise, and there, indeed, was Nino.

What was _Nino_ doing here? Alone, no less?

Alya showed up on their routes sometimes because of the Ladyblog, but Nino?

Ladybug shoved off the building, wind rushing in her ears and the ground jarring her ankles as she dropped into a crouch beside him.

"Did you call?"

Nino jumped, gaping at her for a moment like he hadn't expected a response (like _hell_ was Ladybug going to abandon her lunch buddy), and then grinned.

"Heyo, Ladybug!"

Ladybug belatedly remembered to stand straight, setting a hand on her hip. "What's up? Something wrong?"

"Oh, no, no man," Nino reassured her, shaking his head and waving a cheery hand, "Just wanted to thank you for, like, _everything."_

Ladybug bit down on her amusement. "Oh, well... thank you."

"You and Chat Noir are just..." Nino paused in the middle of striking _some_ dorky pose or other to flash her a confused look. "Where is he, anyway?"

Ladybug's starting smile died a slow death at the reminder. She glanced at the skyline and told herself she wasn't pouting. "'Wish I knew..."

"Oh man," said Nino, hesitating only a moment before giving her shoulder a sympathetic pat. "'He okay?"

Ladybug sighed.

"I... think so. Don't worry about it." She shook herself out of it. "What were you going to say?"

"Oh! Yeah, so," he said, setting his hands on his hips and looking just as smug as he had been earlier, "I heard your interview with the Ladyblog, you know?"

Thaaaaat explained some things. Ladybug felt her face flush. "O-oh."

Nino leaned in and grinned. "And, you know, I think I have _just_ the info you need, my man."

Ladybug folded her arms, feeling a responding grin sneak up her face. "Do you."

"I do! Y'see..." Nino gestured grandly. _"You_ are talking to Adrien Agreste's best bro."

Somehow, Ladybug remembered to look appropriately shocked, instead of bursting into giggles. "I am?"

Nino nodded, trying hard to look serious and only partially succeeding. "You are. And, y'see, my bro... well."

Ladybug cocked her head, honestly curious.

Nino leaned in and, putting a hand over his mouth, he whispered, "He's been _captured."_

Ladybug blinked.

"He's been what?"

Nino straightened and looked sheepish. "Well, y'know, by responsibility, but..." He sighed. "I worry about him, you know?"

Ladybug did know, even if she couldn't say she did.

"Anyway! Got off track — his dad's making him attend some fancy party." Nino traced a frustrated gesture midair. "And I know it doesn't _sound_ that bad, but the man _never_ lets his kid take a _break_..." Nino put a hand behind his head, mouth twisted. "I worry."

"Yeah," Ladybug echoed quietly, because she couldn't say, _I do too._

"So I was thinking..." Ladybug found herself the subject of a very _present_ set of honey-brown eyes. "Y'know, I bet he'd be _really_ happy if he didn't have to go... or if something happened while he was there."

Ladybug's stomach flipped. Mildly amused, she asked, "Are you asking me to commit vandalism?"

"Vandalism? Naw..." Nino ducked slightly, concern flitting over his expression once again. "But... maybe kidnapping? I dunno, man. He's been _everywhere_ lately."

Ladybug's chest squeezed tight. "...Yeah."

In the end, she didn't really have to think about it at all: this was the chance she'd been waiting for, really.

"...Do you have the address?"

Nino beamed.

* * *

The party was, as Adrien had predicted, a boring adult party.

The upside was that more than half the people here were at his station or higher, so that meant that less than half were looking to climb the social ladder through him, which meant that he could usually escape any notably uncomfortable conversations without too much fuss.

On the downside, _he_ was expected to make nice with a fair amount of people.

The only thing more amazing than how much Adrien didn't want to be here was how he somehow managed to pretend that he _did_ want to be here.

It was petty revenge, but tonight, Adrien was _determined_ to be seen eating as many different slices of cake as possible.

Not metaphorical — _literal_ cake.

The catering here was, as expected, top-notch. The ornamental cakes lining the dessert buffet couldn't have been less then a thousand euros each — probably more.

They were beautiful and decadent and absolutely out of his approved diet, and there was _nothing his father could do about it._

It gave Adrien a powerful sense of vindictive glee to pick up his fifth slice and blink innocently at the billionaire in front of him as he shoved half of it in his mouth at once.

The feeling was what kept him going through most of the event, but by eight or nine, even that wasn't enough.

He put down his glass of champagne (picked up to wash down his sixth slice) and bid the man he was playing sycophant for a quiet goodbye, citing the need for a little air.

 _God,_ what he wouldn't give to escape for real.

* * *

Nino's directions — though a little difficult to follow for someone who traveled through the air and not through the streets — proved true, which was how Ladybug came to be hovering outside the window of a building where Adrien resided for the second time that week.

The party inside was much higher class than the last time she'd tried to talk to him though, it must be said; all buttery lights and polite titters and lightly perfumed air. She squinted through the milling masses, trying to catch sight of her target, and mostly spotted a lot of model-beautiful rich girls and boys and older people that couldn't have been more obviously old-money if they'd been carrying around pedigree certificates.

She dropped down to a lower window, ivy trying to catch at her hair as she passed, and poked her nose in _that_ one, stretching to see the corners of the room she hadn't been able to before.

There were only more strangers in most of them, but she hit pay dirt with the refreshment table.

Adrien looked _exhausted_ , shoulders slouched as he sipped at a glass of what might have been champagne and smiled veneer-bright at the man speaking to him.

As she watched, he raised a polite hand to his conversation partner and moved away, exhaling a tired sigh and wandering in the direction of the sliding glass doors on the other side of the room — the ones that probably led to the balcony she'd seen on her way over.

That was her chance.

With an aching, hopeful, anxious heart, she detangled her yo-yo from its anchor and lassoed the weather vane on the other side of the roof.

* * *

The balcony, thankfully, was deserted.

The air was fresh and cold enough to be downright _ambrosial_ , and Adrien inhaled gratefully, feeling the tension bleed out of his shoulders.

He probably couldn't stay here long before someone was sent out after him, but he soaked up the silence while he could, feeling a light breeze dance over his neck and cool his flushed skin.

Two more hours. He could make it two more hours.

Not even two hours, he noticed as he pulled out his phone. One hour and fifty-seven minutes.

That wasn't... _too_ bad.

Adrien sighed and slumped against the balcony railing.

"Um," said a quiet, familiar voice. "Hey."

Adrien jumped, whipping around to face the door before realizing it wasn't coming from _behind_ him — it was coming from _under_ him.

Ladybug was dangling right where the bank of ivy would hide her from any onlookers, looking shy and sheepish.

 _"Ladybug?!"_ he hissed, just barely remembering to keep his voice down.

Ladybug looked shyer and more sheepish. "H-hey."

Adrien gaped at her for a moment, face heating and heart racing in his surprise, and then he cleared his throat and straightened. "H-hey. What... what are you doing here?"

(She'd said that she'd like to know him.

The memory was still giving him butterflies.)

But... now? Here?

She pulled herself up, and he stepped back to let her stand next to him on the balcony.

She fidgeted instead of answering him, a flushing slightly as she hesitated, and Adrien's stomach was already in knots of hyperawareness when she opened her mouth.

"I... I, um..." She swallowed, throat working delicately in the golden light escaping from the doors to their right.

Adrien waited, breath catching in his chest.

"A, um, little birdie told me you'd be here," she said, even shyer and more sheepish, a blush blooming red over her cheeks. "A-and they said that you might not want to be here."

Confused, Adrien opened his mouth to ask who the bird was, but Ladybug wasn't finished.

"And I wanted to apologize for... for what happened a few days ago." She rubbed the back of her neck and smiled up at him, so sweet and soft that Adrien forgot all about unknown birdies and exhausting parties. "It... It was really sudden, and I think... I think I made you worry, and if I did, I'm... really sorry."

"No," Adrien breathed, too warm-flustered-happy to manage anything stronger than that. "No, I..." He swallowed around the heart in his mouth. "I'm just... really glad you're okay."

(Ladybug had a _crush,_ and it was on _him._ )

The _light_ that entered her eyes was hypnotic.

"Yeah, I'm... I'm great," she said, a silly grin taking over her face for a heart-tripping second before she bit it back down. "S-so! Um..."

She cleared her throat and squared her feet, folding her hands behind her back, and said, "So. This party's kind of dull, isn't it?"

Adrien swallowed down the absurd urge to giggle. "Don't I know it."

Ladybug pulled one of her hands out from behind her back and offered it to him with a flourish, ultramarine eyes _endlessly_ blue. "Wanna run away with me?"

"Where to?" he asked, already placing his hand in hers. It was just the sort of thing that happened around Ladybug, conscious choice or no.

She jumped a little and blinked at his hand, like she hadn't expected to get it, and then bit her lip and drew him in, letting him stumble into her orbit and feel everything around them fade into dream-like unreality.

Looking up at him through her eyelashes, Ladybug whispered, "A-anywhere you want to go?"

Adrien had to remind himself to breathe; it definitely wasn't going to happen on its own. "S-sounds good to me."

Ladybug giggled, hiccuping sweet, and pulled him with her back towards the railing, a promise of adventure in her eyes that had Adrien falling, falling, falling.

"Then... where to?"


	6. Chapter 6

In the end, they got crepes next to the local park.

Ladybug's hands shook as she handed over Adrien's share, and she avoided his concerned stare as she flopped down on the seat next to him, a shock of embarrassment rolling through her gut at her own lack of grace.

"...Ladybug?"

Ladybug shoved her crepe in her mouth, fudge and bananas sitting on her tongue as she blinked at him and asked, "Mmngfn?"

Adrien clapped a hand over his mouth, shoulders shaking as he looked away. 

_Oh god why was she such a dork._

It took him a moment, but he managed to look back over at her with a mostly straight face and ask, "Are you alright?"

_No._

She was _dying_ of humiliation.

She couldn't actually say that with a full mouth, though, so she chewed and swallowed furiously, only choking a little bit before her mouth was clear enough to say, "Me? N-naw, I'm just fine!"

...For just one day, Ladybug would desperately like to stop being Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Adrien looked at her, eyes almost soft enough to break her heart, and then looked away, flushing under the lamplight.

"...That's good."

Ladybug slowly drooped behind her crepe and _burned._

In the awkward silence, Adrien raised her offering to his mouth and took a bite.

"Oh!" he said, drawing back and blinking down at his wrap in surprise. "That's... good."

And just like that, it was a smile Ladybug was hiding behind her crepe instead. "...Haven't you ever had one before?"

Adrien snorted. "Are you kidding? Do you know how easy it would be to _poison_ something like this? Father would never allow it."

It was said mockingly, a tired sort of resignation behind the words that had Ladybug blinking as Adrien dug in with an enthusiasm she normally associated with house pets getting a share of human food.

"...Oh," she said. And then, still awkward but slightly less so than before, she said, "I, um, don't think that one's poisoned."

Adrien lapped chocolate off his fingers, a flash of pink tongue hitting Ladybug like a punch to the gut, and smiled wryly. "I know."

"Right," said Ladybug, feeling very silly. _Of **course** he knew that, you—_

"Thank you."

Ladybug blinked. "...What?"

Adrien jumped, then flustered, fidgeting with the wrapping of his crepe and going slightly redder under the street lamp. "O-oh, you know. F-for the crepe!"

Ladybug was left with the resounding feeling that he wasn't thanking her for the crepe at all.

He shoved another bite into his mouth before she could ask, emitting a soft, low, pleased hum that hit Ladybug right where the sight of his tongue had and made her want to squirm in her seat.

Any question she might've asked him died an ignoble death.

"S-s-so," she found herself stammering instead, face hot and insides fizzing, "d-do you get invited to a lot of parties like that?"

Adrien's look of quiet happiness faded, which was a very good _and_ a very bad thing, in Ladybug's eyes. "Don't you know it."

"...You don't... sound too happy about that," Ladybug offered.

Adrien shrugged, aiming a faded smile at his food. "They're... kind of boring, you know?"

"Hm," said Ladybug, because she _didn't_ know, and correct her if she was wrong, but Adrien didn't seem like the type to be bitter about being made to do something 'boring.'

"Well," he said, straightening with another smile that made her fizzing insides go... _weird,_ "they can be pretty cool sometimes. Once father took me to Delhi, and the music there was _amazing_."

"Really?" Ladybug said, watching his face and wondering why it wasn't threatening to melt her.

"Yeah," Adrien was saying, still grinning that weird, flat grin. "And the food was better. Have you ever had paneer tikka?"

It took Ladybug a moment too long to respond, and Adrien glanced over at her, grin slipping as he saw the look on her face.

"...What?"

Ladybug's eyes slid sideways back to her own crepe, and she frowned at it in confusion. 

"...No, nothing."

When it became apparent that she didn't have more to say, Adrien sighed and fell silent.

Another three bites of banana and chocolate, and Ladybug finally put together what was bugging her about that smile.

It was the same one he'd been giving that old millionaire.

Ladybug was _not_ an old millionaire, and, somehow, she didn't want to hear the things he'd probably been babbling to people like that all night. She was supposed to get him _away_ , not bring the forced small talk back to him.

But then...

What _could_ she say?

"...If you could go anywhere in the world, no boring parties or anything, where would you go?"

Adrien blinked at her, in the middle of taking a bite with a dot of whipped cream on his nose, and Ladybug bit down an unexpected snort.

It was Adrien's turn to chew and swallow just a little bit to fast, looking faintly embarrassed as he scrubbed the mess off his face.

"I... don't know," he finally said when his (very pretty) mouth was clear. "I could go to New York."

"And see Times Square?" Ladybug suggested.

He chuckled, still... _tired_ in that strange way. "I could do that."

"Where else?"

"...I could go to Hollywood," he said, tipping his head back and looking at the stars that shone bravely through the light pollution. "I could see Sunset Avenue."

"...You could."

"I could go to Hong Kong." He took another bite. "It's one of the biggest business capitals in the world, you know."

Ladybug _had_ known, but it begged the question of, "Why would you want to visit a business capital?"

"...You know," said Adrien, smiling vaguely, _tiredly_ at the stars, "I really don't know."

Ladybug blinked, having expected to hear something like 'temples' or 'architectural marvels,' and then, very cautiously, she asked, "...But where would you _want_ to go?"

Adrien straightened out, blinking glassy gemstone eyes into the distance, and then he grinned at her, bright and mischievous and much more present than before.

"You know, I hear the City of Love is pretty great."

Ladybug choked on an inhale, stomach flipping and skin heating.

"W-well," she stammered, wondering why it felt like the words were aimed at _her_ , and gathered herself to grin cheekily right back at him. "I've got some good news for you."

He cocked his head, giving her a smile she _had_ to look away from for fear of her life. "Do you?"

"I-I-I mean," she spluttered, shoulders tightening up against her _burning_ ears, "we-we're _here,_ so, I mean..."

Ladybug looked down at the thing occupying her hands, somehow having forgotten in the course of the conversation that she was holding anything at all, and found the whipped cream of her crepe slowly melting back into its bank of wrap and fruit and chocolate.

Ladybug could empathize.

"Y-you're in luck," she finished, her face even hotter than before.

She chanced a glance at him and immediately regretted it.

He looked _delighted_ , stars in his eyes and a silly grin on his face and Ladybug's heart _really wasn't built to handle this._

"Ne, _mademoiselle,_ " he said, light and laughing and deep in some fake accent, "I'm a little lost."

"Are you," said Ladybug, arch, knowing she'd regret feeding whatever this was, but also knowing the day she had it in her to say 'no' to a smile like that would be a cold day in hell.

"Do you think you could give me directions to your heart?"

...Yep, she regretted it.

Regret didn't stop her smiling as she glanced back, though, and it thrilled right down her spine that it took one look at her face to make Adrien's breath hitch, his grin go gooey around the edges.

He _really liked her._

The thought somehow, _somehow_ gave her the courage to lean her elbow on the back of the bench and tip forward just slightly as she said, "Try about..." She measured the distance between them with the hand still holding her crepe. "Twenty centimeters in front of you."

She only realized it sounded like an invitation when he started to lean in himself, but like _hell_ was she going to correct that.

To her intense disappointment, he stopped about five centimeters away from her face — just close enough to hear him swallow, feel his breath fan over her face.

"H-here?"

"M-mm..." Ladybug said, lungs tightening and face flushing ever deeper as she realized that five centimeters was all it would take to really, truly _kiss him_ for the first time in her life.

Before the thought could settle too deep, Adrien lurched back.

"R-right!" he yelped, an odd look of panicked pleasure crossing his face as he turned pointedly in the other direction. 

Oh.

_Oh god._

She'd just been about to _kiss Adrien._

A surprised hiss of pain interrupted her oncoming mental breakdown, and she glanced over to find Adrien wincing as he stared at his crepe.

"...Is everything okay?"

Adrien twitched, catching sight of her worried look and smiling that bright, flat smile again. "'Course."

Ladybug narrowed her eyes, and the smile fell back into a wince.

"I'm completely fine," Adrien insisted, even less convincingly. 

"...Is there poison in the crepe?"

Adrien snorted in surprise, and then hissed again and wrapped an arm around his stomach. "No, no poison."

Ladybug stared at his arm, her oncoming mental breakdown promptly switched out for an oncoming panic. "Are you _sure?"_

Adrien sighed and glanced at her, then flushed and looked away, mumbling, "Stomachache."

Oh god.

It really _was_ poisoned.

_What had she done?!_

Adrien looked at her again and gave a strained chuckle. 

"No, it's not poisoned." Then he glanced at his crepe again and groaned softly before adding, "I just... had a little too much cake."

"Cake?" Ladybug echoed dubiously, sensing that she was being placated.

Adrien flushed a little darker, his mouth twisting before he confessed, "It's _really_ dumb."

Being poisoned through a superheroine's well-meaning attempt at kidnapping _wasn't dumb_ , Ladybug would know.

Playing along for the moment, she asked, "...How much cake did you have?" 

Adrien stared at his crepe with an expression like regret.

"...A lot."

Ladybug pointedly raised her eyebrows.

Sheepishly, Adrien mumbled, "...Six slices?"

"...Six," she repeated, staring at the side of his head.

"Six," he confirmed, holding his stomach and staring shamefully into his crepe.

"...That's a lot," Ladybug said, captaining the S.S. Obvious as she tried to process consuming _six slices of cake._

She lived in a _bakery_ and she didn't think she'd ever had six slices of cake at once. Who could stand that much cake?

"Yeah," he said with another strained chuckle, and lowered his dessert, wrapping his arm tighter around his stomach. 

"...Why?" she asked, reaching out to him before she could stop herself.

He jumped a little as her hand rested on her back, and then said again, "...It's _really_ stupid."

"...Did you get into a bet with someone?"

That startled a real laugh out of him, though it was one that died fast. "No, no bets."

When it became obvious that she wasn't going to let it go, he sighed and flushed deeper. 

"Because my father insists on a healthy diet, and cake isn't on it."

"...So you ate _six slices,"_ Ladybug repeated, just to make sure she'd gotten it right, and tried not to laugh.

"I was going for ten," he admitted in a mumble, staring at the chocolate and whipped cream layered in his share.

Ladybug _really_ snorted that time. "That would be a real rebellion."

"Shut uuuup."

Ladybug swallowed the rest of her giggles, fondly taking in his bright red ears and long eyelashes and the look of remorse he was giving his gift, and came to a very small realization.

"...You're kind of a dork, aren't you."

Adrien turned redder and stuffed the crepe in his mouth, stomachache be damned.

Ladybug smiled idly down at her own and suggested, heart in her throat, "Would it help to lie down?"

Adrien winced as he swallowed his bite and said, "M-maybe..."

Ladybug held her hand out for the crepe and nodded at her lap, face hot. "I-I think there's enough room on the bench if you wanted to..."

"Oh," he breathed, looking a little blank, and then: "...Thanks."

Which was how Ladybug came to be holding a crepe in each hand while a very pretty boy rested his head in her lap, his cheeks red and his blond hair feathering against her spots.

Ladybug was a lucky lady indeed.

* * *

The only problem with his new position, Adrien found, was that the pain was distracting him from fully enjoying it.

Her thighs were soft, supple — higher than was ideally _comfortable_ but it was _Ladybug_ and _Ladybug's thighs_ (and Ladybug hovering over him with pink cheeks and a look of shy delight), so obviously it was the most comfortable pillow in the world.

They rested in silence as Ladybug nibbled her way through her own crepe (Adrien slightly jealous and mostly not; his stomach _hurt_ ) and Adrien recovered, thinking about how maybe next time he could just be seen as taking _bites_ of cake? And then he could hand them off to Belle or Lily or Alice on the down-low — their diets were about five times worse than his, and Alice, he knew, had a least as bad a sweet tooth as he did.

Ladybug leaned against the back of the bench with a quiet sigh as she set the wrapper for her crepe aside, looking at the stars.

"You can, uh, have mine," Adrien offered, voice coming our rougher than he expected. He cleared his throat. "If you want it, of course."

"Oh," said Ladybug. Then, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he sighed, bidding a quiet goodbye to that _delicious_ concoction of fried goods and sugar. "I can't, and there's no point in letting it go to waste."

Her fingers brushed through his hair in what Adrien assumed was supposed to be a sympathetic gesture, but which zipped through his system like an electric shock, pain or no.

Ladybug hesitated over the other crepe, staring at it for a moment before taking a tiny, delicate bite.

Adrien shut his eyes and sank further into her lap, wondering why that gesture alone was enough to make his stomach churn and his face burn.

The pleased little sigh she let out afterwards was worse.

...Okay, maybe he _shouldn't_ have offered.

Her free hand came to rest idly, unthinkingly on his head, fingertips brushing gently over his temple and through his hair.

A shudder shot down his spine, tingling pleasure mixing with the pain in his gut, and he blinked his eyes open in surprise. That felt _really_ good.

He kept still, hoping, and was rewarded with slim fingers curling over his scalp, then stroking his head from crown to nape, like you would a cat.

Adrien melted.

She did it again, and, while it didn't help with the pain itself, the rest of Adrien's body was now suffused in happy tingles, so it sort of _did_ help, in a way.

They stayed like that for a bit, until Ladybug was setting aside the other wrapper too, and her hand stilled over his ear.

Adrien was just starting to quietly mourn the loss of the touch when Ladybug jerked her hand off him like he'd suddenly caught on fire.

"S-s-s-sorry!" she squeaked, squirming her upper half as far away from him as possible, "I'm _so_ sorry, I d-d-didn't realize—"

Adrien swallowed a laugh and immediately regretted it — the spike of hot pain from his gut removed any therapeutic qualities her petting may have had. He rolled on his back with another flare of pain to be able to look her in the face.

She wasn't looking at him, cheeks bright red under the lamplight, and before he thought about it, he was reaching up to touch her cheek to get her attention.

Her skin was warm and soft under his fingertips, the glow of her blush feeling like what he'd thought was a fever before (... _oh_ ), and Ladybug looked down at him, face pinched in embarrassment.

"It's okay," he reassured her quietly, and then belatedly realized that touching her cheek was actually... kind of _intimate_ , and pulled his hand away with a blush of his own. "I didn't mind."

"O-oh," she said, expression melting into something so _sweet_ that just looking at it made him feel something like what her stroking had. "That's... that's good."

Adrien managed to look at her looking at him like _that_ for a good three seconds before he had to look away.

Somewhere in the not-so-far distance, a clock chimed ten.

"It's, ah, getting late," he noted reluctantly, feeling reality sink back in.

Someone (either his father or Nathalie) was going to murder him if they found out he'd been gone.

"Right," said Ladybug with a little sigh.

Very reluctantly, Adrien sat up, wincing as his gut redoubled its complaints.

"Ready?" she asked.

_No,_ said everything in Adrien, getting louder the more he thought about having to go _back_ to that party.

"Yeah," he said aloud, and smiled at the worried look she flashed him. "I'm ready."

"...Okay."

* * *

The balcony was as they had left it, and the party was too.

Ladybug set Adrien down in the corner she'd taken him from in a manner that felt very much like being returned to the real world by the fae.

Unlike how contact with the fae, usually ended, Adrien still very much had a stomachache, and unlike the fae, Ladybug stuck around for a few seconds longer than she needed to, fidgeting nervously. 

"Thank you," he murmured, catching her wrist before she could decide to go. "That was... it was amazing."

She giggled nervously, the same shade of bright pink she'd been all night, and Adrien's burning gut squirmed. "It-it was just crepes, you know."

'Just' crepes, she said.

Adrien wondered if it would be telling to kiss her hand in gratitude.

She didn't give him a chance.

"A-anyway, it... it's really late, and—" She cut herself off with a gulp, mouth working and cheeks darkening and hands twisting in her yo-yo line. "A-a-and..."

"...And?" Adrien prompted, now wondering if the absolute _joy_ of watching Ladybug lose her cool would ever fully wear off.

(And she was losing her cool over _him—_ )

"And..." She took a deep breath, chest puffing as she held it for a second, and then, in an almost _hilariously_ squeaky tone, she said, "G-goodnight!"

Adrien got as far as opening his mouth to formulate a proper response to that when Ladybug lurched in.

Her damp, warm, chapped lips hit his cheek in one heart-stopping touch and pulled away with a tiny smack.

Adrien's jaw hit the floor.

Ladybug tugged on her yo-yo string in a manner that looked faintly distressed, hesitating in front of him until it became apparent that she'd frozen him solid.

At which point she burst out with another, "Goodnight!" tugged a little harder on her string, and fled into the night.

It took another two minutes to pick his jaw back up, and another three hours for his cheek to stop tingling, and by that point he was home (with only minimal parental disapproval — apparently he'd gotten away with it) with nothing to do but roll around in the fantasy of how things might have gone if she'd decided to stick around.

* * *

"...Ladybug did _what."_

"Um," said Marinette, looking away from where an even _smugger_ Nino was leading a dazed Adrien into their classroom as they walked back after their lunch break. "Alya? Are you okay?"

Alya was clutching her phone, staring after her friends with a flattened mouth and eyes too tight. "Ladybug did _what?"_

"Um..." said Marinette, watching her friend with more than a little bit of worry. She hadn't thought getting Adrien out of a boring adult party would result in this much... _rage._

Or, well, not this much rage from Alya, anyway.

"You... you know that it's _okay,_ right?" she asked carefully. "I'm not sad or... um."

Alya's phone case creaked as her hand tightened convulsively around it, but Marinette's... rather _passionate_ friend made no other indication that she'd heard Marinette say anything at all.

"...Alya?"

There were three long seconds of silence, and then Alya unfroze, turning to Marinette with a terrifyingly cheerful smile.

"Hey, Marinette, how do you feel about amusement parks?"


End file.
